acclimaiting wood

[Tom Bussey]

How do you store your wood when preparing to acclimate It? How long do you acclimate you lumber before using it?

[Ron Citerone]

I have a wood pile and sticker it in my attached garage. No definite time, but I think it does help.
I think how you handle it after you start jointing and planing is a bigger issue. I never let one side exposed to the air with the other side on a table or counter overnight or for a long tome.

[Jim Becker]

If I'm truly acclimating material that is new to my shop, I try to sticker it. And then partially mill it (even amount on each side unless there's a reason that can't be done) then stack and sticker for a day or so. From there it's full speed ahead. I use thin stickers for this

[jack duren]

Kiln dried or rough sawn that’s not kiln dried?

[Jimmy Harris]

It depends on a lot of things. But I usually don't buy wood until I need it for a project. And I work out of an exposed garage.

But I like to buy the wood first and give it as much time to acclimate as I can, if that's an option. So often, it might sit from anywhere around one to two days, to one to two weeks. I've got a moisture meter and I'll usually take a reading and compare it to a similar wood that I have in the garage and if they're far apart, I might force myself to wait a little longer until they get close. But most of the time, I just deal with it.

My experience is boards tend to warp when I work them and relieve internal stresses, so it's better to work with the woods movement than fight it, if possible.

Now if I'm working on something that's going to live indoors when completed, I might try to keep it and/or the lumber inside the house when I'm not working on it, if I can. That way it acclimates to my house instead of my garage. Other times I might sticker it in the garage and let whatever happens, happen. Sometimes, if it's particularly dry or humid day outside compared to normal, I might cover the wood in plastic sheeting and not sticker it to keep it from changing rapidly.

If I had a steady environment, I might have a steady routine. But since everything around me is always changing, I try not to worry too much about what I can't control and just deal with whatever adversity presents itself as it arises. But one thing I do like to do is work quickly once I start joining stuff. The more you wait, the more wood moves.

[Ron Citerone]

Especially if I am using it for door frames I, like others said, I will joint it just flat and then plane the other face removing an equal amount. Then sticker and weight it for several days before planing to finished thickness. Straight grain wood for door stiles and rails.

[Tom Bussey]

I happen to agree with three other comments. I trend not let it aliment at all. I go straight cutting it 1 /4 over over size I like to leave it to leave it at least as long as I can but at least 2 inches . I then joint the first side then plane the other side. I try to do it in equal amounts. I tend use an over head close line to hang the wood on.

[Michael Burnside]

If I'm truly acclimating material that is new to my shop, I try to sticker it. And then partially mill it (even amount on each side unless there's a reason that can't be done) then stack and sticker for a day or so. From there it's full speed ahead. I use thin stickers for this

Pretty much copy+paste this for me.

[jack duren]

We don’t acclimate anything from the cabinet shop to the furniture shop. It offers no difference in assembly to wait..

[Myles Moran]

I try to give wood a week in my shop per inch of thickness. Usually this means one weekend I go to the mill and break down pieces enough to mill, and then load them into my shop. The next weekend I'll mill and start working. It's not an ideal workflow, but given everything in my shop is on wheels except my tablesaw and workbench, I try and do milling in one or two times per project to minimize time spent moving machines.

I also sticker everything. I have a few buckets with 12" pieces of 1x2. Any time I stack lumber it's stickered for airflow.

[Richard Coers]

Let's see how many ways we can spell acclimating? LOL

acclimiting wood

aliment at all.

[jack duren]

I’m just curious if the wood knows the difference from one shop to the truck to your shop. Kiln dried wood isn’t going to absorb enough moisture on the top boards to even worry about it… if your worry about it, don’t use the top boards……

[Tom Bussey]

I am somewhat surprised, usually I have read that it has to set for 3 months before use. and usually I got a lot of back lash when I said I didn't acclimate at all. Since my shop is not heated ( -4 today) or cooled at all I treat Air dried the same. However I used try to stay clear aired dried. I do now have an abundance of Ash I will have to deal with. I have no intentions of acclimating it when it inters the shop It is 1x19x a little over 8 FT. It was dead when it was cut down and processed. it has been stored this way for two years and the last Time I checked it it was at 10 percent which is about as good as it is going to get. I just haven't got to it yet.

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[Jim Becker]

Tom, the specific material matters. A few years ago I special ordered a lot of KD clear white pine in for a client project. It seemed to be dry based on my moisture meter, but I fortunately checked again after skimming it on both sides and found it to be higher in MC than I prefer. So I stacked and stickered it in the shop for a few days; did the deed again and...had to stack and sticker it again. And again. Four iterations later is was actually stable and ready to complete the project. I didn't have the option of returning it because it was special ordered (hard to get, too), so I was glad it became usable after about a week of careful conditioning. OTOH, the wood I have personally air dried has been relatively stable and only needed minor conditioning. Most of the KD wood I've purchased "off the racks" from my normal purveyors has also be stable and ready to work but I still practice the skim and stack/sticker for at least overnight just to be sure. If something needs months to stabilize, then that material was not really ready to go when it was purchased.

[jack duren]

If you have to stack kiln dried lumber it’s a supply issue. I couldnt tell you how loaders of lumber I’ve worked with. I know at the furniture company we were the larger buyer of ash lumber in Midwest..